Equipment

Walk into any climbing shop or browse a climbing website and you’ll be confronted with lots of different climbing equipment. Huge amounts of shiny, colourful, anodised and often expensive gear, hanging there just waiting to be purchased. (Here at Climbing Explained we’re like magpies when it comes to expensive shiny kit…we just can’t resist it!)

So what equipment do you need when starting out? How do you choose which rock boots to buy and just what is Gri-Gri?!? Well look no further. Below is a comprehensive guide to each piece of equipment, what it looks like, what it’s used for and what you should ask your local climbing shop or web retailer before spending your hard earned cash. Click on the items below for a full description, pictures and in some cases a video.